*All I’m saying is, we talk a lot about how the tightrope walk of being a decent human being while White is complicated, but in some ways it’s actually pretty simple"
thank you for this! i often find myself caught up in the "the person who can find a way to dunk on this thing as not being good enough wins" game, and i am working to extricate myself from it since it is such a noxious and unhelpful tendency!
Great reminder, Garrett. Thank you. (We also have a recall school board thing going on. People are on top of the response and resistance, but this is going to be a long, exhausting decade. Worth it, but important to remember all the hysteria we see now will be followed by something else. We'll need resilience in a lot of ways.)
We need resilience, and that will only come from how we lift up each other... this will not surprise you, but I'm also very invested in your specific community's recall. Anything that can be done from afar?
I don't think so? If you have any specific thoughts, we can email about it! I had a long talk with a person here who has been consistently on the forefront pushing back against all the white nationalism and anti-government extremism (because the Flathead Valley is SO FUN but as I tell my friends and acquaintances who are just as tired as I am, this place is so freaking beautiful and abundant and the white supremacists et al. don't get to claim it for themselves) and she gave a lot of good advice: Don't ignore them completely (I asked about that, because there's always the question of giving people oxygen), but have a strong, positive "we support our public school and school board campaign" that is led and organized by parents. Unfortunately, I can't spearhead that because of a board I'm on (longer story) but we are working on finding someone. People are understandably wary to be the face of that, as the school board itself did receive death wishes after mandating masks for K-6.
I think the recall's success would be a very long shot, but you never know. They need upwards of 2000 signatures (percentage of registered voters at most recent municipal election, and they have to live within city limits) and barely 1500 even voted in the last school board election.
I LOVE THAT OPED SO MUCH! i also think that the organizer you talked to has exactly the right advice. It's so, so tiring-- and you all have been on so many frontlines that you never requested to be on, but I do get the sense that it's also bringing together folks who don't want their community to devolve into hate and toxic provincialism.
That is very true. We learned a lot during the online hate storm of 2016-17 but a lot of the response to that was I think already informed by earlier experiences dating from my teen years.
I thought you would like that op-ed! His are always good but this one in particular hit home and was sorely needed.
*All I’m saying is, we talk a lot about how the tightrope walk of being a decent human being while White is complicated, but in some ways it’s actually pretty simple"
❤️
thank you for this! i often find myself caught up in the "the person who can find a way to dunk on this thing as not being good enough wins" game, and i am working to extricate myself from it since it is such a noxious and unhelpful tendency!
Me too! Sometimes 90% of these pieces is some public accountability for myself.
Great reminder, Garrett. Thank you. (We also have a recall school board thing going on. People are on top of the response and resistance, but this is going to be a long, exhausting decade. Worth it, but important to remember all the hysteria we see now will be followed by something else. We'll need resilience in a lot of ways.)
We need resilience, and that will only come from how we lift up each other... this will not surprise you, but I'm also very invested in your specific community's recall. Anything that can be done from afar?
I don't think so? If you have any specific thoughts, we can email about it! I had a long talk with a person here who has been consistently on the forefront pushing back against all the white nationalism and anti-government extremism (because the Flathead Valley is SO FUN but as I tell my friends and acquaintances who are just as tired as I am, this place is so freaking beautiful and abundant and the white supremacists et al. don't get to claim it for themselves) and she gave a lot of good advice: Don't ignore them completely (I asked about that, because there's always the question of giving people oxygen), but have a strong, positive "we support our public school and school board campaign" that is led and organized by parents. Unfortunately, I can't spearhead that because of a board I'm on (longer story) but we are working on finding someone. People are understandably wary to be the face of that, as the school board itself did receive death wishes after mandating masks for K-6.
I think the recall's success would be a very long shot, but you never know. They need upwards of 2000 signatures (percentage of registered voters at most recent municipal election, and they have to live within city limits) and barely 1500 even voted in the last school board election.
There was a great op-ed in the paper from a former legislator in the Inter-Lake that I think you'd appreciate (on American Redoubt and Sanders County). The only online version I can find is in Glasgow's paper: https://www.glasgowcourier.com/story/2021/10/27/news/op-ed-american-redoubt/10476.html
I LOVE THAT OPED SO MUCH! i also think that the organizer you talked to has exactly the right advice. It's so, so tiring-- and you all have been on so many frontlines that you never requested to be on, but I do get the sense that it's also bringing together folks who don't want their community to devolve into hate and toxic provincialism.
That is very true. We learned a lot during the online hate storm of 2016-17 but a lot of the response to that was I think already informed by earlier experiences dating from my teen years.
I thought you would like that op-ed! His are always good but this one in particular hit home and was sorely needed.
Thanks - this is just what I needed to read this week :)
THANK YOU!